Understanding and treating traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans is very difficult because some chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) can only be diagnosed after death Now, scientists are exploring the signs of human head trauma by studying animals that hit their heads, such as bighorn sheep and musk
Research Director Nicole ackermans, a postdoctoral fellow at the Icahn School of medicine in Mount Sinai, said: "death and disability caused by brain trauma are a wide range of problems that need better solutions. We show that animals that often have head impacts may actually suffer the kind of traumatic brain injury seen in humans. This opens up the possibility that we can learn a lot about brain trauma by studying these animals.".
Some animals, such as male musk, can reach speeds of 30 miles per hour (48 kilometers per hour) before colliding with each other as part of their mating and social hierarchy rituals, but there is little evidence of brain damage and concussion in these animals. This is because, just as woodpeckers hit trees with their heads thousands of times a day, they have evolved mechanisms to protect their brains from impact.
However, this does not mean that there is no experience to learn from in studying these animals. Bovides are hoofed mammals, including cattle, bighorn sheep and musk cattle. Their brains are folded, or gyroscopic, the same type as humans. However, until now, no research has directly tested the brains of these animals for signs of brain trauma.
"Our lab is trying to use evolution to help solve medical puzzles," said Patrick R. Hof, senior author of the study. "One of the difficulties of traumatic brain injury research is that most of the research is carried out on smooth rodent brains. We believe that the compacted bovine brain may provide a better model for understanding human TBI.".
The team obtained the brains of three dead musk cattle and four bighorn sheep. Their preliminary analysis found no accidents. The scan showed that the brain structure of each animal was complete. The brain is then sliced and treated with antibodies that show a phosphorylated form of a protein called tau, which is often found in the brains of patients with traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer's disease.
When viewed under a microscope, the brain of bighorn sheep showed slightly detectable antibody levels. At the same time, the musk sheep's brain showed easily detectable antibody levels, and the prefrontal cortex showed high levels of tau tangle formation, especially near the surface.
"This pattern is sometimes seen in the brains of people with CTE. Our results open the possibility that the brains of these animals have experienced chronic, repetitive damage, as seen in some patients with traumatic diseases," Dr. ackermans said.
Interestingly, an old female musk dog has about 20 times more staining than an old male musk dog and about 5 times more staining than another female musk dog. As we all know, male musk collides with each other harder and more frequently than female musk, which raises some new problems.
Ackermans said: "this study left us with many interesting questions, such as why the female musk dog's brain seems to have more damage than the male musk dog's brain? Is this due to differences in skull anatomy? Why the bighorn sheep's brain has so little damage? And is it possible to use the knowledge we have gained from these animals to develop better methods to treat traumatic fractures?"
The study was published in Acta neuropathologica 》In the magazine.
Source: Mount Sinai Hospital